This one’s made the ’rounds on a couple of occasions, but perhaps it will have some legs now that Phil’s got his record 10th NBA title, and Duke isn’t going to be on anyone’s short list of Final Four threats after losing Gerald Henderson to the NBA draft and super-recruit John Wall to Kentucky.

On Wednesday, a blurb appeared in the Racine Journal Times in Gery Woelfel’s column. His source says Phil Jackson will step down as the Los Angeles Lakers head coach and Mike Krzyzewski will be the sought after replacement … Woelful said Wednesday that his source is a very accurate one who usually hits home runs on all his calls.

We’re wracking out brain trying to find out how a guy in Wisconsin could have such an impeccable source for two teams that are nowhere near his coverage area. This is not us knocking a small-market paper; we’d have said the same thing if either one of the big Chicago papers reported it, or a paper in Texas did, or if this came from the KC Star. And it’s not like this was a standalone story - it was buried in a notes section, sandwiched between two items on the Milwaukee Bucks.

So where’d it come from? After scouring the Bucks coaching staff, there is one assistant coach who spent a lot of time in Chicago as a high school basketball coach (Brian James). The only conclusion we can draw is that he forged a friendship with Jackson during those years, and the two still keep in touch, and maybe he’s chummy with Mr. Woelfel. A longshot, for sure.

There’s also an assistant coach, Joe Wolf, who played at UNC and probably is connected in the Raleigh-Durham area. Could this be a wishful thinking leak on his part, knowing that it is the kind of rumor that might ruffle recruiting feathers on Tobacco Road?

Otherwise, we’ve got nothing.

Reporter tells The Fan his source on Jackson, Krzyzewski is reliable (WRAL Sports Fan)